Now that the Ombudsman has approved the resolution to file plunder charges against those involved in the malversation of the Priority Development Assistance Fund, it looks like Senators Juan Ponce-Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla would be observing their Holy Week in jail.

It is reported that Revilla and his family are in Holy Land to seek for “divine intervention.” Let’s see if his wish would be granted.

The accused will be given time to submit a motion for reconsideration, after which the Ombudsman will file the Information with the Sandiganbayan. The graft court will determine whether there’s a basis for the case to proceed.

The Sandiganbayan has 10 days after receipt of the Information to issue a warrant of arrest.

In a briefing, Ombudsman Spokesperson Asryman Rafanan they “found probable cause to indict Juan Ponce Enrile, Ramon Bong Revilla Jr., Jinggoy Estrada, as well as Janet Lim Napoles, and a number of government employees and non-government organizations offices with plunder punishable under RA 7080 as amended and violation of section 3E of Republic Act 3019 or the anti-graft and corrupt practices act in connection to the pork scam.”

On the charges for Plunder, Rafanan said “the Joint Resolutions concluded that the three Senators took undue advantage of their official position to illegally divert , in connivance with certain respondents, their respective PDAF allocations to the Napoles NGOs, in exchange for kickbacks/commission amounting to more than P172 million ,P242million ndP183 million in the case of Senators Enrile, Revilla and Estrada, respectively, with the PDAF funded projects turning out to be “ghost” projects, under a modus operandi of a combination and series of overt criminal acts repeatedly taking place over a number of years.”

The crime of Plunder under RA 7080 is punishable by reclusion perpetua (to death), and forfeiture of the ill-gotten wealth in favor of the government.

In the Ombudsman resolutions, it showed that Revilla got the largest kickback in the amount of P224, 512,00 out of the P517,000,000 PDAF that was released to him.

Estrada was the second topnotcher with P183,793,750 kickbacks from his P480,000,650 pork barrel.

Ombudsman’s investigations showed that P172, 834,500 out of the P345, 000,000 PDAF released to Enrile went to kickbacks and commissions.

On the charges for violations of Section 3(e) of R.A. 3019, the Joint Resolutions uniformly found that the sets of respondents conspired in causing undue injury to the government in the amounts of P345 million, P517 million and P278 million from the PDAF of Senators Enrile, Revilla and Estrada, respectively, by receiving, in evident bad faith, kickbacks or portions of the diverted amount, and by being manifestly partial in the selection of the Napoles NGOs and the conduit Implementing Agencies (IAs), which resulted in unwarranted benefit, preference or advantage to the Napoles NGOs which were chosen without the benefit of public bidding and which supposed turned out to be “ghost” projects.

Estrada and Revilla issued statements denying the accusations adding that they were not surprised by the Ombudsman’s decision. Enrile, as of presstime, has not issued a reaction.

Enrile’s chief of staff of Enrile, Gigi Reyes, Estrada’s Pauline Labayen, and Revilla’s Richard Cambe were included among the respondents.

Included also are Ruby Tuason, former social secretary of President Estrada who acted as broker in the Malampaya and PDAF scams and Dennis Cunanan, director-general (on leave) of the Technology Resource Center , which was used as conduit for the release of PDAF to ghost non=government organizations and projects.

Tuason and Cunanan have applied to be state witnesses.

The number of the respondents shows how extensive the scam’s network. The cases against the three senators and their cohorts in the PDAF scam demonstrate that the law does not distinguish the offenders social and political status.

REGIME CHANGE can not be ruled out now; at any time from hereon, VPBinay would succeed PNoy’s remaining term to enjoy the same set up GMA had vs FPJ in 2004 wherein she as sitting President qualified to run for another 6yrs. With such “unbeatable adavantage”, we can expect Binay’s win in 2016 along with BBM as his VP as well as the updated version of the Hello Garci scandal.

Prison for these poor excuses for human beings? Not in the good old Pinas! That would really be the day, but please don’t hold your breath. it’s just too good to be true! What puzzles me no end is why JPE at 90 years old is still obsessed with making piles of illicit money! Never mind the two younger thieves who are just taking after their mentor. But Enrile? Hey, Johnny, you can’t take it with you, you know! These trio of kleptomaniacs are the classic example of what the Pinoys TRAPO. The pols would like that to mean traditional politicians, but the truth is it is what it is–trapo- or dirty old kitchen rag! Kapal ng apog ng mga walang hiyang ito!

Wow, Revilla in Holy Land of Jerusalem. I wonder what he is praying for and to whom he is truly praying to. It can not be to our God as we know. I say this because what he, and his cohorts, did is worse than what Judas Iscariot did. At least Judas only received so little money in betraying Christ. If it is true, and there is no reason not to believe it true, these hypocrites and plundering Senators betrayed not only one man, but millions of their countrymen they swore to serve. Funds supposed to be for people, especially the poor, the farmers, the sick, those victims of disasters, etc were stolen by them. At least Judas Iscariot’s money was given to him, not stolen by him.

The country must be in celebration when these crooks land in jail and punished. I holding my breath……

They’re in Holy Land using the loot that he’s stolen from the Filipino people, then he’s probably going to ask the Israeli government to give asylum and convert to Judaism. Why is it that when these criminals gets caught with their hands in the cookie jar, the first thing they do is deny, lie, blame the weather then ask God to help them. But seeing these crooks in prison are all wishful thinking, that’s my opinion. Our country’s justice system is about as useless as teats on a boar.

So much publicity was covered of the scams in the media and most Filipinos are waiting for result.Suspend this politicians and cohorts,freeze and garnish their assets..Bong Revilla is now in Holy Land seeking for divine intervention…Holy Land is just close to Switzerland where banking secrecy law can make him easily hide his money.Jinggoy Estrada just keep on smiling and doing all his tactics to include many politicians while watching the completion of his mansion.Enrile pretend he is sick and now hiding and relaxing in his fortress in Cagayan.While the queen of the scam Janet Lim Napoles prefered to undergo surgery in the hospital at gov’t expenses to evade further litigation and stay quite.Those cohorts like Gigi Reyes is still hiding in foreign land to spend and enjoy her commission from Enrile,Ruby Tuason is back in USA still enjoying all her share from the scams.Dennis Cunanan still holding his share from the scam in his fat bank account.What about the other politicians and gov’t officials they are still keeping their scam money and living in luxury because of this “Bank Secrecy Law”..some of them start campaigning for re-elections using the scams money….Filipinos will only believe that justice works in the country if only all the scamers are lock up in jail and their assets are garnish.But will justice work?…this is a big test in the “Land of Thieves and Liars”

It might take another two years before they can be detained for plunder. but here’s a scenario that would delay any attempt to detain them: First they’d attempt to influence the Sandiganbayan, which I believe is loaded with corrupt judges who are on friendly terms with corrupt officials. The Sandiganbayan could dismiss the charges for “lack of probable cause,” which is the easiest way to stop the prosecution. The cases would then be sent back to the Ombudsman, back to square one. If the Sandiganbayan proceeded with the plunder case against the trio, they would then go to the Supreme Court and ask for a TRO or status quo ante. If the SC issued either one, then the case could go into limbo for a long time while the SC hears the arguments from the Solicitor General and the defendants. And if the SC issued a ruling in favor of the government, the defendants could then ask the SC for reconsideration. And if the SC upheld its ruling, the defendant could then again file for another reconsideration. By that time, a new president is elected — either Binay or Marcos. Well, Binay is party mate of Enrile and Estrada and Revilla would probably had turned balimbing by then. In regard to Marcos, well, he was one of those suspected of being involved in the pork barrel scam bot for some strange reason was able to avoid prosecution. And Mar Roxas, who is probably the only one who would continue P-Noy’s vendetta against Enrile, Estrada, and Revilla, would most probably lose in his presidential bid. The winning combination would probably be a Binay-Estrada or a Marcos-Revilla tandem. Then it would be a whole new ball game. And guess what? P-Noy would most probably be charged with plunder and detained in the same room where Gloria was because by that time all plunder charges against her had been dropped. That’s how the wheel of justice works in Pinas. Meanwhile, the poor people continue to eat pagpag. Poor Inang Bayan, when will you ever be freed from bondage?

Like I said Perry, we’re all just part of the crowd that are now on the outside looking in. We can talk about how things should be in our homeland but that’s really all we can do, the power to change the future of our country are in the hands of our kababayans. They have two options, get their heads out of the sand or continue to allow these people to ruin their lives.

From most reactions here, it seems that many people still don’t trust that PNoy can do some changes in the rotten and corrupted justice system that favors the corrupt politicians. I want to think that things have change a little bit. But then again that “little bit” is far from changing our set perspective that we have held for years. Anyway, I’d like to see that there’s enough political will and enough political force from those entrusted with the justice system to change the implementation of justice for the better. From what I see at present, there is a big chance that the 3 plundering senators will be arrested and jailed since they cannot post bail. But if VP Binay will become president in 2016, they could be set free somehow. For sure, Enrile will not stay long in jail because of his age. Let’s see what happens in the next few days.

I don’t hold my breath. The Motion for Recon surely cannot be resolved in days.

Bong Revilla, now in the Holy Land, cannot be in some Unholy Gaol by the 17th.

Sagutan, as part of of anyone’s human and constitutional right to due process.

I cannot see any of the three not using the Supreme Court card. The SC has not decided with finality the killing of Lenny Villa in frat hazing on February 11, 1991.

Erap used to grouse against over-due process.

At a critical phase of his plunder trial, Ping Lacson went public out of court against Erap.

So, no surprise in his going out in public against Bong (now linked to Garden Getsomemoney in some insensitive text).
He delights in kicking one who is down.

Maybe Dick Gordon should replace Ping as Yolanda rehab czar?

Meantime, the presumption of innocence in our Bill of Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ignored in the case say of Hubert Webb, do we again erase where people are subjected to pervasive, prejudicial publicity?

Again, Hubert, who I said from the start was thousands of miles away on June 30, 1991, gives us pause. The NBI produced Jessica, who possibly is still using taxpayer’s money in the Witness Protection Program.

The hooting throng could be a menace. Not enough Atticus Finches saying, wait a minute. . . .

From the comments about this news, it seems that no one believes that corrupt politicians will be convicted. This is really a hopeless battle against corruption which is so deeply rooted in the people’s psyche that there is no way out. What a tragic fate awaits all the poor people who continue to suffer while the corrupt politicians continue to rule!